Saturday, July 24, 2010

A gardener's paradise

My parent's place is a gardener's paradise where edibles grow in abundance. These are the works of my father who grows these organically for our own consumption.

Here is where you find sweet potato vines growing everywhere as ground cover, leaving weeds no chance of surviving in our yard. It is also where papaya trees are laden with sweet, yellow flesh fruits.

There's a mustard green patch (below) just outside our porch.And along the side of the house, you will find artemesia growing profusely.More artemesia....My father has started growing spring onions too.And the chives are extra large, at least twice as thick and tall as the store bought ones.Mum likes to scatter pumpkin seeds randomly around the yard. Don't be surprised to find big fat pumpkins peeking out amongst the sweet potato leaves. I even spotted one crawling up the lime plant, with a pumpkin hanging in the air.Here's a closer look.Mum scours the yard for female pumpkin flowers every morning. Armed with male flowers, she helps with the pollination. This is the result of her handiwork - a brand new baby pumpkin!We always have dragon fruits and papaya fruits growing in the yard.The passion fruit vine that my kids planted years ago is still going strong.Look at the flower (top) and fruits hanging on the vine.Even the grape vine that my brother planted more than 10 years ago is very much alive. The big and strong lime plant lends support to the vines growing around it. In the photo below, you can see them co-existing happily together.

I Googled on Artemesia and learnt that it is a cancer-curing herb. I haven't heard of Artemesia but I have heard of 'Heah'! Ha ha..now I know they are the same thing.

An old lady whom I go to for massage whenever I have muscles aches would burn 'Heah' and smoke it on my body parts that was aching. Seems like it acts as a kind of medicinal cure for muscles aches too.

JC - Yes, the electrician who came to my apartment to do some work was telling me that he had to get regular supplies from Malaysia. He also told me about the cancer theory. I gave my plant to him. I should grow some new ones in my patio.

Malar - Actually I am not sure. I googled and found some people refering sawi to chye sim, others say it is mustard green. The ones in the photo is very bitter compared to chye sim. It is not a very popular dish.